Thanks all, for now might get strips as tank is near end of cycling. Do I need to check for calcium yet as nothing much in there to use what's there. Also I have 2 part reef supplement from Kent marine that I believe helps with calcium and other water conditions. Don't really use it during cycling.
Sent from my Lenovo YT3-X50F using Tapatalk
it depends on your goals, but it's certainly not a bad idea to test.
if you're not keeping stony corals, then alkalinity will be more important to test than calcium. alkalinity helps fish maintain their slime coats, so even without corals in the tank it's an important one to watch.
if you are planning on keeping stony corals, then testing both will be important.
i'll echo the comments of the other posters in saying that i've had mixed results at best with the strip tests, and only slightly better results with the API tests. i typically treat the API tests as cycle only kinds of things. they give you a basic picture of ups and downs, but beyond that i don't find much value in them.
my preferred tests are Hannah for alkalinity and calcium (mostly due to the convenience factor, but Red Sea, Salifert, and Seachem all make great tests too).
for other testing i'll second (or maybe third or fourth at this point) Red Sea and Salifert. i've had limited exposure to the Red Sea brand, but regularly use some of the Salifert tests and like them. i think one of the better aspects of the Salifert tests is that the directions are extremely clear and unambiguous. that's helpful even if you've been in the hobby for a while.
